Studies have shown a mentor can be a help ...

[AZ679]

This is a question about:

Manhattan SC Book, 5th Edition, Page 35, #15:

Studies have shown that a mentor can help improve a student's academic performance. (Corrected Version)

My Question: Could we even make the sentence more concise by omitting 'help'?

Thanks

[tim]

Why are you asking this question? I could make the sentence a little more purple by taking a purple highlighter to it, but wanting sentences to be purple is about as relevant to the GMAT as wanting them to be concise.

In 8 years of teaching the GMAT, I have never seen a single official question that relied on concision to solve, and in 8 years of challenging my students and fellow instructors to show me one, none of them has ever found one either.

Let me say that more directly: CONCISION IS A USELESS CONCEPT FOR SENTENCE CORRECTION ON THE GMAT. ANY TIME YOU SPEND EVEN THINKING ABOUT CONCISION IS WASTED.

[AZ679]

Why are you asking this question? I could make the sentence a little more purple by taking a purple highlighter to it, but wanting sentences to be purple is about as relevant to the GMAT as wanting them to be concise.

In 8 years of teaching the GMAT, I have never seen a single official question that relied on concision to solve, and in 8 years of challenging my students and fellow instructors to show me one, none of them has ever found one either.

Let me say that more directly: CONCISION IS A USELESS CONCEPT FOR SENTENCE CORRECTION ON THE GMAT. ANY TIME YOU SPEND EVEN THINKING ABOUT CONCISION IS WASTED.

Okay,

1. You ask me why I am asking about concision: I advise you to have a look at sentence correction strategy guide Manhattan 5th edition, page 31: Read the instructions for problems 9-15:

Rewrite the following sentences more concisely. Justify the changes you make

This is what the Manhattan book asks us!
That you do not know the Manhattan SC book instructions seems interesting. So, blame yourself or the Manhattan staff who have written the book, not me. And before answering a question, please have a look at the book.

2. "In 8 years of teaching the GMAT, I have never seen a single official question that relied on concision to solve, and in 8 years of challenging my students and fellow instructors to show me one, none of them has ever found one either.
"

I think either you have not had a carefull look at OG problems or have forgotten some of them. I advise you to go and revise the OG SC problems again. I am not a GMAT tutor, but I have seen few questions (and answer choices) that test concision.

Furthermore, ask yourself, if concision is not relevant to the exam, why Manhattan SC book(5th Edition) chapter 11 has 4 pages on concision and concision patterns?!

Let me say it frankly Tim, as with most other responses of you and Ron, I think the way you (you and Ron) answer questions is rude, funny and like savage people.
Are you fine?
Are you educated people?!

If you, and Ron, do not know the answer to a question, you can simply not answer it or say: "I do not know", rather than saying some cliches and [expletive deleted] such as "it is not relevant to the exam"!

[tim]

Thank you for calling my posts funny!

NOTE: FOR ANY OF YOU WHO WANT TO GET A GOOD SCORE ON THE GMAT, YOU CAN STOP READING THIS POST NOW BECAUSE I SAID EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO IN MY PREVIOUS REPLY. IF INSTEAD YOU FIND IT MORE AMUSING TO WASTE YOUR TIME QUESTIONING THE GMAT OR DISPUTING IRRELEVANT DETAILS, BY ALL MEANS READ ON!

AZ679, let me address your points one at a time:

1) The book did not ask for the most concise possible sentence, which means that your question was irrelevant to the specific task assigned in the book. Thus unless it has some relevance to the actual GMAT (which it doesn't, see below), your original question was by definition irrelevant.

2) I don't know why MGMAT put a section in the 5th edition strategy guide that talks about concision, because it is not relevant to the GMAT. I do know that the concept of concision has been substantially de-emphasized in the 6th edition book based on the fact that concision appears not to be a real thing on the GMAT. I stand by my original challenge - and please understand, when I say that in 8 years no one has been able to show me a problem that relies on concision, a response that says effectively "I'm sure I saw one but I don't remember which exact problem it was" doesn't count. As they say on other forums, pics or it didn't happen.

3) You can be sure I will admit when I don't know an answer. I just did in the previous paragraph. But don't assume I don't know an answer just because I decide not to waste your limited GMAT study time answering a question that won't help you on the GMAT anyway.

4) I won't rise to your bait about whether I'm "fine" or "educated people", and I can assure you Ron won't either. You'll have to take your insults elsewhere, because we have important work to do helping students here. We're happy to help you too if you'll let us!